quote:since as long as I've been using the internet. I'd be willing to be that's longer than pretty much anybody on this board.
You could lose that bet.
I've been on the internet since long before it was called the internet and it consisted of BBSs. My brother, a programmer since 1973 (?ish, or thereabouts), ran his own BBS way back when. And yeah, I got my first email address so long ago I don't remember exactly when it was, but it was at least two decades ago. Wow, I'm really getting old.
Heck, I even took a programming course back in, um, 1982 or 1983. Really simple programming, of course, but hey.
The first portable PC I used musta weighed in at 70 or 80 pounds, was about two feet by one and a half feet by seven or eight inches with a handle on top, which folded out to reveal the keyboard, 5" green monitor, the 5 1/2" & 8" floppy drives.
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Ah, but do you put "Pantros" on a submitted manuscript? I can't recall offhand any one-name writers currently around---you guys may know better than me, especially in online publishing and the like. Generally the published writers have names that stick to a fairly rigid format...first name, then last name, with the occasional middle name or initial, or "Sr." or "Jr." or "III" or "IV" or "V" or such, thrown in for variety...
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I remember the good ol' BBS days, too. I remember when AOL was just barely brand new. (I think . . . might be wrong about that) It was JUST a BBS at that time. And there were other big companies out there that had been around longer . . . Compuserve, GEnie, Delphi, to name a few. Not to mention the small local dial-up BBSs.
But I don't recall them all being networked together . . . 'cept through the phone lines.
The high-school I went to (in 1990) had internet access. My use of the internet pre-dates web browsers. I bet that beats MOST people on this forum. Back then, it was Gopher, Telnet, and FTP.
Ah, the good ol' days. When a whopping **8 MILLION COMPUTERS** were connected around the world.
If anybody here used ARPAnet, I'll concede humbly.
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We never connected to networks, but I learned apple basic for the apple IIe in 1980. I miss those old 5.25 floppy discs -and being able to erase them by rubbing them across the screen. Pascal was a big change in 84 and I got out of the programming side after that.
quote:Ah, but do you put "Pantros" on a submitted manuscript?
technically, yes, I do put "Pantros" on every manuscript. But not always as a byline.
I don't have a consistent pen name. It depends on the genre. I do not use the same pen name across genres. I have seperate pen names for Childrens, Fantasy/SciFi, Contemporary and Erotica. None of them are the name you'd find in the phone book. Stalker Fans are scary for people with familys.
Edit: Internet? Dial Up BBS's and AE boards were my prowling grounds back when I first got my Apple II+. Okay so the AE stuff came a few years later.
The TRS-80 I learned programming on was connected to a power cord, a loud dot matrix printer and a tape drive. (Cassette)
[This message has been edited by pantros (edited July 07, 2006).]
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As I mentioned well above this post, I used Spaceman on bitnet back in 1988 while I was in grad school. We got our first computer, a timex Synclair, back in (I think) 1981 or 1982. I remember it well, because I was typing in programs from Compute and Byte and wished for a tape drive.
Aside: that's the way we did it, kids. We typed in the BASIC code by hand every time we wanted to play a game. We usually listened to these really big black CDs while typing them in.)
Anyway, I remember the Timex computer well, because the clear memory key was <cont>-A and the keyboard was so small it was easy to hit <cont> instead of <shift>. I don't know how many programs I deleted by accident that way.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited July 07, 2006).]
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited July 07, 2006).]
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Well I don't see the difference between Johan Mcallister and Dragon Princess. A name is, after all, just a bunch letters that mean a person. I use Pyre Dynasty so friends from my RPing days can find me. (It's my third though, morphed from Pyro Foxx and my first was Cyber Fox. In case someone from so long ago looked for me.) I don't hide my name though, I use it in private e-mails and if I do get a book published then trust me everyone here will know. You can find my real name here, it's my only credit: http://www.bronzecanticles.com/tales/thirdwinner.html If you can't accept advice from a person named Pyre Dynasty because of my name then you have more problems to worry about than your writing. How do you know that my parents weren't hippies (or celebrities) and actually named me Pyre. Would you not respect the words of someone named Tsering or Megummi? Those are both real people's real names. But they sound cool. This may be a masquerade but we do have a ball.
(on a different note I remember those old BBS days, someone should translate L.O.R.D. into web friendly version. Long live Seth Able.)
[This message has been edited by Pyre Dynasty (edited July 08, 2006).]
quote:But I don't recall them all being networked together . . . 'cept through the phone lines.
I don't know if the big ones were or not - that would be my brother's department. But I do remember using one BBS and connecting to another through it. And the internet WAS connected through phone lines in the dark ages...
And my brother was programming back in the old punch card days. He brought used punch cards home. My mother used them for grocery lists and chore lists for, well, at least a decade after that.
Oh! Yeah, I was on compuserve back in those days, too... Oh, the memories...
[This message has been edited by quidscribis (edited July 08, 2006).]
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I learned programming on punch cards---in my college days in the late seventies---and I knew full well they were obsolete even then. (Would you believe I passed the course even though I could never get access to the computer to try to run what I'd punched out?)
*****
Way off topic, that is...what can I add to pull it back? Oh, yeah...
Pantros's comments do make me wonder...at least about what it says on his drivers licence, and whether the bank gives him a hard time when he tries to cash a check with a single name on it. Some institutions aren't too accomodating about these things. (I've had trouble enough with my bank over checks, real name and all.)
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They phased out punch cards the year before I started to college. I was always a little disappointed about that.
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Well, this thread has caused me to want to change my MC's name in my novel to something I like. Though I'll probably keep the pen name of Franc.
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A sidebar thought, not brought up far as I can tell...
A couple of the names you guys use, that have floated by since I started hanging 'round here, resemble some of those I used to run across when I used to hang out on a couple of boards in my Internet Fan Fiction period.
I'm not saying any of you are them---the names are close but not identical---and it's hardly implausible that some of them might have found their way here before I did.
But, chances are, if you think of some short-but-clever name to call yourself here, it's likely that somebody somewhere has already used it, or a reasonable facsimilie thereof.
quote:Pantros's comments do make me wonder...at least about what it says on his drivers licence, and whether the bank gives him a hard time when he tries to cash a check with a single name on it. Some institutions aren't too accomodating about these things. (I've had trouble enough with my bank over checks, real name and all.)
Anyone publishing anything I write would know my real name and who to make the check out to.
If they happen to make it out to Pantros, that's fine too, It would just be under my "business" account from my 1099 contracting days. My "business" name: Pantros.com. Its only been 3 years since I actually made any money under that business name.
I personally know very little about online publishing, but if I did, I would probably use "Pantros"
The name on my driver's license will, hopefully, remain a secret.
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I just hope the real Eric James Stone doesn't find out I've been pretending to be him on this forum.
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Fascinating. And my [former] bank wouldn't let me cash a two-party check with the second party right there with me...
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I had a friend who was checking "pooka's" livejournal for several months before a post on acquiring a black leather bustier tipped her off to the possibility that it might not be me. So, yeah, I'm quite aware that I'm not the only pooka on the internet. The 50 I use in situations where an appendix is required is a reference to the fifty50 login I used once on modelminority, a website where Asians gripe about being Asian in America.
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This is a fun topic. I've always tried to think of something clever to use as a handle, but gave up because I couldn't find anything that felt like me. So, Marva is my real first name. I usually just go by that in forums.
Okay, you claimers to being the most ancient: I took Fortran in college in 1972 using punch cards. I was in the group of people who started up one of the first personal computer companies. Altair and IMSAI put out their 8080s around the same time, around 1976. I'm so old, I forget the exact year.
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I don't think anybody is claiming to be the oldes, we're just identifying ourselves as a subculture.
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I started on computing by programming trebuchets. Back in those days, you had to carve the instructions in base one (unary) on long wooden planks and feed them in one at a time. It took significant upper-body strength. And boy, if you got one tiny thing wrong, people died.
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I was born in 1972, I'm grateful to have missed the punchcard days, and I envy the whippersnappers growing up with the ability to do their research on the computer instead of at the library like us semi-old people had to.
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Well, someday---and maybe not too long---these things we call "computers" will be the dinosaurs and something more efficient and easier to use will replace them.
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I think great, I just have a better memory when I'm 'plugged in' to google while I'm doing my thinking. It leads to less embarassing, "Once I think I read that..." moments where you mangle the facts, misquote the speaker, and in general make a fool of yourself.
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We had a similar question turn up at the Hall last year. Something like: "How do I know who's opinion to listen to if I don't know who is a published writer?" After considerable thought, I came to the following conclusions.
1. The real names of the members is inconsequential for the purposes of the board.
2. If everyone used their own names, some would get crits and then google the name to see how famous or important the critter is. Should you take the advice or not? If the guy isn't a three time Hugo nominee, maybe you ignore him. But what if he was right and the Hugo guy was wrong?
If Stephen King and JK Rowling were both here and each told you something different, which would you believe? And if they were here under their real names, how much actual discussion would get done and how much time would be spent dealing with fans?
3. You don't build an audience from chit-chat posts on internet websites. You build it from solid stories published in good venues.
Brag threads are for building audiences. When we post our brag threads there are often links to the stories and they have the real (or at least pen) names on them.
4. I know for a fact that at least one of the fanciful names on this board hides a Nebula nominee. (There are probably more, but I don't check in often and haven't kept track.) A LOT more of these fanciful names hide writers who have long passed the stage of "wannabe".
The plain fact is that every opinion is important, from the writer just starting out to the guy with hundreds of publications behind him.
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Well, I've run across Hugo- and Nebula-winning stories that I thought were absolutely awful, so I'm kinda suspicious of them as indications of their worth. Popularity, yes, but not worth.
And Stephen King's written stuff that I've thought was brilliant and great and moving, as well as stuff I've thought was bad and pointless---and nearly all of it much too wordy.
I take it seriously that they've been published---but not that what they've written is something I'd like to read.
(Edited to rephrase a misleading sentence in the first paragraph.)
[This message has been edited by Robert Nowall (edited July 12, 2006).]
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Well, since finding out that information slightly more easily is the only reason that we'd care about anyone's "real" name (like I'd be published under my real name anyway), it tends to be another argument that legal names just aren't that important.
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Well, there's also the dark side of posting under another name---doing so to hide one's identity while lashing out in a sour and disruptive manner. In my over-mentioned Internet Fan Fiction days, we had someone posting shredding story reviews while deliberately hiding under another name---other than the one he used while posting on various boards, that is. (Oddly enough, he usually liked my stuff.)
I can't say I've noticed anything of that sort here...
2. I would not want people I know in real life to be able to find me on here. My writing life is currently separate from the rest of my life--not because I'm ashamed of it, but because some of the things I write don't necessarily match up to the sort of person I present myself to be in public, so it would just be strange for me if certain people saw this side of me.
3. I don't think my writing is good enough yet for me to want to put my name on it. I'm still learning. By my standards I'm not very good, and until I meet my standards I want to keep my name in the background.
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For what it's worth, when I answered the person who asked this question in the first place, besides asking for permission to post the question here, I also said the following:
quote:There are some relatively non-silly reasons for using alternate names, though.
Some of the people use names that refer to a novel they're working on or to a character from a world they've created to write about.
Some people use alternate names because they know anyone can come and read what they've said, and they prefer some anonymity online. When they actually make a sale, they usually tell us what byline their story is being printed under.
Also, when I first became involved in an online community (GEnie), I took advantage of the opportunity to use a name that I had liked for a long time and really wished to be called by ("Phaedre"), to the point where I actually considered having my name legally changed when I was in college, so I can sympathize with people who use other names.
Just for the record, Damon Knight thought using alternate names was silly, too. He always addressed me by my real name, but he knew what it was because I didn't hide behind "Phaedre."
And finally, several of the people who have actually sold their work after participating at Hatrack do use their own names: Mary Robinette Kowal, Eric James Stone, Christine, Mike Munsil, and Beth, to name a few.
I would add as several of you have, that being published does not make someone an expert. Many of the people here can give insightful and useful advice as "wise readers" (to use OSC's term) even if they can't do it as published authors.
The longer I have worked with writers, the more convinced I have become that the old saying,
quote:Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
is a lot of baloney if for no other reason than that just because someone knows how to do something doesn't mean he knows how to help others do it (teach), and knowing how to teach does not require that you can actually do it yourself. Some of the most helpful and successful editors in the history of publishing never sold a book or a story of their own. Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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It's funny what you say about editors. The only famous editor who springs to mind is Jackie O. Certainly she was famous for other reasons, but her editing career was presented as being quite serious and important in "The American Experience" episode about her.
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I would use my own name and have - for poetry publication. I don't see why not and your right louiseoneal - they can't steal what I don't have.
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On combining lack-of-confidence in your stories and using a pseudonym...I'd say if you have the nerve to send them around you should have the nerve to put your own name on them. (Or at least a consistent choice of name.)
On Jackie O. as editor...I read some scurrilous gossip somewhere, that a lot of the editors who did the real work harbored deep resentment for the celebrity editor who breezed in and was there for her marquee value. Jackie O. came up in connection with this. But I wonder how true it is...
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If I remember correctly, Jacqueline Onasis wrote, was a photographer, and had quite a lot of publication experience before she married John F. Kennedy. She may have been a celebrity editor, but she did know something about what she was supposed to be doing.
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